Global marketing comes to middle school event

Adam Sodders

Writer

asodders@timesrepublican.com

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS -
Emerson business analyst Farhan Ryan goes over several popular companies and products at JA in a Day at Miller Middle School Tuesday.

Marshalltown Schools, Emerson and Junior Achievement of Central Iowa came together Tuesday to teach seventh graders about global business and marketing.

The event, JA in a Day, saw several lessons shared by Emerson employees who volunteered to teach the Miller Middle School students. Lessons covered global marketing, working with customers and different cultures, trade barriers and more.

“It’s a global marketplace, and with Emerson Controls, you don’t get much more global than that,” said Miller Principal Pat Rial. “JA in a Day, it’s never been done to this extent in one day.”

Emerson, which has Marshalltown operations located not far down Boone Street from the middle school, is an international corporation based out of St. Louis. It is also one of the area’s largest employers.

“I’ve got business and culture, so talking through how to interact with different cultures around the world,” said Emerson engineering director Jason Olberding of his lesson plan.

The middle schoolers were not only able to learn about companies like Amazon, Sony, IKEA, T-Mobile and LG Electronics, they also learned how marketing is different around the globe.

“We learned different things about businesses and different kinds of businesses,” said student Alejandra Ramirez.

She said the most interesting part was learning how businesses are formed.

Fellow seventh-grader Amaya Moore said it was interesting to learn how different products are made and marketed.

“I learned there are a lot of different types of companies,” said student Roberto Almanza.

He said it was interesting to learn about all the companies from around the world.

Rial said he and his staff were happy to partner on JA in a Day. He said he hopes students realize not only the possibilities for jobs around the country and world, but also opportunities locally.

“Very good jobs are sitting blocks away, rather than saying I need to go to Des Moines or New York City to find a job when it’s right here,” Rial said.

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Contact Adam Sodders at 641-753-6611 or asodders@timesrepublican.com

Editor’s note: This story clarifies that Emerson is based in St. Louis and has operations in Marshalltown.